As long as its not like that "Ghostrider" video. That nutter was diving betwen two cars in opposite lanes whilst doing around 150 mph!

Well I've just taken a quick glance through the Highway Code online and I can find no reference to "filtering". It does now say you may stay in a faster moving lane on a motorway even if that is to the left of the traffic being overtaken, and it also says you should not "weave in and out of lanes to overtake". No mention is made of motorcycles having any dispensation to apply any other rules than these, that I can see.

Car drivers are trained and examined on the Highway Code. If there is some written or unwritten rule about motorcyclists being able to legally "filter" between lanes, then car drivers should be trained accordingly to compensate. As it is, it appears to me just to be a case of "custom and practice" that has not been made official yet. I'm happy to be corrected if I've missed something. Of course I try and be aware of the possibility of a motorcycle on either side of me when changing lanes these days, but depending on the delta speed, they can appear very suddenly and without warning.

Sam, what is the legal distinction between filtering and undertaking? I have no problems with bikers filtering when traffic is travelling at significantly less than the speed limit - although I sometimes wonder if I am going to lose my wing mirrors. But I have also been undertaken at speed which, on occasions, has been downright hairy. For example, on a busy motorway if you want to move from, say, lane 3 to lane 2 and are waiting for a gap, you don't expect to be undertaken at speed as you are moving into that gap having indicated in good time. It has happened to me more than once, although to be fair the bikers involved are usually 'weavers'.

Sits back and waits......

I almost hesitate to join this one - but here goes....

There is a quite long stretch of dual carriageway on my route home which leads to a port. There seems to be a quite high number of bikers on this road who mostly seem to like to dice with death on a daily basis. If am travelling at (insert speed here) in the outside lane quite often a bike will appear in my mirrors rapidly approaching (like a rocket). I do always try to get out of the way but this is not always possible due to weight of traffic. Sometimes the biker is still obviously keen to get past - how does Sam suggest I do this given that a) there is a constant stream of traffic on my left and b)we are both probably exceeding the speed limit.? (NOTE fast cars also get held up in this way by slower moving vehicles - why should a bike have priority ?)

In my experience - no doubt about to be challenged - travelling at over 100 (as most of these bikes do) requires a sixth sense as to what other drivers are going to do - and x-ray vision to see around bends. How safe is this ?? To say a bike rider is good because he/she hasn't crashed and died is absurd (IMHO) - it just means they have been lucky. On this basis all drivers are good because they aren't dead!

I have nothing against bikers - 99 times out of 100 they are very good. I move over for them, they go past and wave thanks. It's the other 1% that cause problems, one of my reasons for giving way other than courtesy is that if they are in the 1% I would rather the nutter was in front of me so that I can see what he/she is doing!

RANT over.

J

When it comes down to it, whether you drive car or bike, you shouldn't rely on other people

not to do stupid things. You shouldn't rely on the other person seeing you, or giving way,

or even looking straight at you and pulling out slowly anyway...

The only difference is, on a bike it'll hurt a lot more!

Rob.

I always wanted a Triumph 955i Daytona until a friend's friend crashed on one and became paralysed, another friend's friend crashed his bike at 35mph and is now in a wheelchair.

As a bike enthusiast but not an owner (or even a bike license holder) i quite enjoy seeing bikes flash past me at 3 figure speeds when driving somewhere , (especially if its a Ducatti...mmmm!) I also love the sound of a bike running custom 'cans' , when theyre running high revs they sound just awesome! Just as long as they run with the headlight on its usually no problem spotting the bikes , i do believe that this should be made law even on the sunniest days , anything that makes a fast moving bike more visible is a good thing IMHO.

Duncan,

Agree on the headlight thing but please Mr Biker can we have it on dipped, not full beam please?

PS hard to feel much sympathy with those bikers who have their headlights coloured pink or even (spotted the other day) RED - now how illegal and dumb is that??

agree, but pruple or green is distinctive, and allows full beam without blinding other users, so I don't mind the filters.

But if they are without, then dipped is plenty.